STORY ARCHIVE

Human affairs of the heart can be complicated, but scientists from the Animal Behaviour Lab at Macquarie University are discovering the humble chook has a complex love life too. Jonica Newby braves the chicken run to bring you the Catalyst Guide to Picking Up... Chicks.

Cheating Chickens

TRANSCRIPT

Dr Jonica NewbyIf you've ever wondered what turns a hen's head, it seems it's way more complicated than anyone suspected. Welcome to the surprisingly saucy soap opera that is life in the chicken run.

NARRATIONMeet Henrietta. She's a chicken looking for her perfect match. Will she choose handsome Rocky, he's Mr Big around around here. Or nice guy Norman, known in the coop for his good reputation? That's what animal behaviourist K-Lynn Smith has been studying for the past four years, she is part of the world leading Macquarie University Animal Behaviour Lab.

K-Lynn SmithThis is our alpha male, he actually rules the roost. You see he's got this lovely red comb, and thin fleshy wattles, and for 50 years they've known what the comb was for, they have known that females really prefer a male with lovely bright red combs that are large, but they had no idea what the wattles were for.

Dr Jonica NewbySo he has these things that to me look ugly and the females don't even like it either?

K-Lynn SmithExactly. So we set up an experiment to find out, why do you have these things?

NARRATIONK-Lynn suspected the answer might lie in a courtship behaviour called tidbitting. When a male finds food, if females are nearby, he makes a food call and does a head bobbing dance, where he picks up and drops the food without eating it. It's like gift to the female, who may then allow the male to mate with her.

K-Lynn SmithThis is a 3D animation of a rooster. He's doing a tidbitting display, he's going to pick up the meal worm, bop it back and forth. Look at how these wattles flop all over the place. Now this fellow here is going to do precisely the same set of movements, but he doesn't have a wattle.

NARRATIONShe played these videos to females to see how they'd react. First the male with the wattle.

K-Lynn SmithThe doors are gonna open and she's going to be able to see the screen, and, oh, she's seen him, right that fast she's out and looking for food. This poor lady, she's looking at a different male, doors are going to open and no.

Dr Jonica NewbyThe guy's bobbing away.

K-Lynn SmithHe's doing the exact same thing, he doesn't have the wattles and she doesn't notice him.

Dr Jonica NewbySo it's really like the wattle is a big red flag: here's the food, do you get it?

K-Lynn SmithPrecisely.

NARRATIONIn chicken society, the dominant male has fought hard for his top spot, and with it his access to females. If he catches Norman waving his wattle in a tidbitting display he'll beat him up. For subordinate males sneaky tactics are required.

K-Lynn SmithWelcome to chicken Big Brother. We've got a high definition camera which is watching the birds. We've got an overhead camera that gives us a full view of where every bird is. We also have these four microphones, we also use these food hoppers that are attached to the microphones to lure the males to display exactly where we want them. Inside here is the recording studio.

NARRATIONThrough endless hours of snooping, K-lynn has discovered something incredible. Males adjust their food calls according to who's listening. If a subordinate male finds food and there is just another male nearby, he won't food call, he'll just eat. If there's another female around, the subordinate may engage in 'silent tidbitting', just the action, with no sound, to avoid attracting the attention of the alpha.

K-Lynn SmithThat's actually quite sophisticated. It's not just a reflex, you don't just go 'food, I'm so excited'. Instead you actually take into account who can hear you and what will be the outcome of food calling and that's really complex, and that's something that's typically seen in primates.

NARRATIONAnd they'll also try to sneakily mate while the alpha is distracted.

K-Lynn SmithThis is Norman again in the background you can see he's got a hen quite close to him. So Norman, our subordinate, is going to do a silent tidbitting display. This is Rocky in the front and he is completely oblivious to the entire thing. So you see he's got the piece of food, he's picking it up, she's figured out, she's come up and taken it. She's gonna crouch down, he mates and then suddenly Rocky works it out.

NARRATIONBelieve it or not, Rocky was too slow to act, that was a successful mating for Norman.

Dr Jonica NewbyGo Nice Norman!

NARRATIONAnd it's not just the males who are sneaky.

K-Lynn SmithHere we actually have a nest of eggs. This would be the dominant female's nest, this is a lot of eggs for one female to have put down. So we did some DNA testing and what we found was that the subordinates were mating, sneaking in, laying their eggs in the dominant's nest, then leaving.

NARRATIONK-Lynn and research director Chris Evans have spent months logging every interaction between the group and discovered that every good deed that a male has performed has a bearing on their success at getting a mate. The females actually remember which males have fed, not just them, but all the other hens going back over a period of six months.

K-Lynn SmithThe entire breeding season, they're keeping track of what the male is doing and who he's doing it for. And that kind of sophistication was completely surprising to us.

NARRATIONIt seems for chickens, the more you give the more you get! So back to our original question, who does Henrietta prefer, Handsome Rocky or Nice Guy Norman?

K-Lynn SmithWell Rocky's going to do the most food calling and, yes, he's going to have the most offspring. So Henrietta is going to prefer Rocky. But Norman is nice, provides her with food, and if he's sneaky then he's definitely in with a chance.

NARRATIONSo looks and power will always turn heads, but if you haven't got those, in the chicken coop at least, being nice and sneaky will get you the chicks.

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Heather - 28 Jun 2010 10:11:36pm

This is great! We have two small flocks of Cochins, with an alpha (Archie) and a beta (Rusty) rooster, and this matches my own observations. Love the way they look after their hens, and the way Rusty practices non-violent resistance :-). Great observation about the purpose of wattles - a red flag to a hen! Thanks.